Institute for Health and the Environment

3 August 2016 Petaluma City Schools District Office 200 Douglas Street Petaluma, California 94952 Dear Sirs/Madams: I am a public health physician who served as the Co-Editor of the Bioinitiative Report, published in 2007 as a comprehensive review of the adverse health effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. There is strong and consistent evidence that excessive exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields has adverse human health effects. Of particular concern is the clear evidence that children are more vulnerable than adults. The best-documented adverse effects are an increase in risk of cancer, but cancers do not appear immediately upon exposure but rather come years later. The National Toxicology Program has within the past couple of months reported that even rats exposed to radiofrequency radiation develop brain cancer! Within a school setting there is increasing evidence that excessive exposures reduce learning ability, which is the last thing one wants in a school. Some children will also develop a syndrome of electrohypersensitivity, where they get headaches and reduced ability to pay attention and learn. While these effects are not nearly as well documented as those relating to cancer, they are particularly important within a school. This is especially the case in a wireless computer classroom, where exposure can be very high. However there will be essentially no exposure in a wired computer classroom. The exposure levels of the Federal Communications Commission are totally outdated and do not protect the health of the public, especially of children. I urge you to abandon any plans for wireless communication within schools. It is of course critical that all children have access to the Internet, but when this is done through wired connections they will not be exposed to excessive electromagnetic fields. Yours sincerely,

David O. Carpenter, M.D. Director, Institute for Health and the Environment University at Albany

East Campus, 5 University Place, Room A217, Rensselaer, NY 12144-3429 PH: 518-525-2660 FX: 518-525-2665 www.albany.edu/ihe